A Hawaii-based Amateur Radio Antenna Blog focusing on the theory, design, and use of homemade antennas.

Monday, May 31, 2010

KH6JRM's Amateur Radio Blog

Things are quiet at the KKBG-FM/KHLO-AM news
room on this Memorial Day. I just finished an exciting
2 days at the Hilo Drag Strip where the Big Island Auto
Club celebrated the 40th edition of the Memorial Day
Drags. The station has broadcast coverage of the drag
racing season for 27 years and that falls under my job
description. Extensive use of the FRS (family radio
service) and MURS (multi use radio service) is used
at the track to maintain contact with the tower, pit
areas, drivers, security, and track crew. Low power
UHF FRS radios (0.5 watt TPO) and VHF MURS
radios (2 watts TPO) give those of us in the tower
a good 1.5 to 2.0 mile range. The track also has a
legal, 100mw AM station for the fans, who can tune
in on the tower chatter at 1610 kHz. The 8' whip is on
top of the tower and gives a decent signal out to
a mile. My reports are cell-phoned to the station
(4 miles away) for broadcast. Racing fans may want to
get a good hand-held scanner and follow the action.
This isn't ham radio, but it does give us some radio
"face" time unitl we can fire up the rig at home. Have
a good weekend. Aloha, 73, KH6JRM.